Cardboard boxes are widely used to ship goods between manufacturers, distributors and retailers. A cardboard box is an inexpensive package providing protection for the goods and made in any variety of sizes. There is often a desire to provide a cardboard box used not only to ship the goods from one place to another, but used at the point of sale in a display capacity.
The prior art discloses many types of boxes that are convertible from shipping to display functions. One such prior art container is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,875, issued to Leftwich et al. The container disclosed by Leftwich et al has removable front, top and back panels to create easy access to the contents. Access is further enhanced by removable portions of the panels underlying the panels that are removed. Kondolf, U.S. Pat. No. 2,012,131, discloses a carton having a bottom panel 20 and an inner bottom panel 21 having dividers 40, 41 cut and folded upwardly from the inner bottom panel 21. The dividers serve to organize the contents of the carton.
There is a need for a cardboard box serving as a shipping container and a display container with structure to organize and dispense the contents at the point of sale.
It is an object of the invention to provide a shipping container that is of sturdy construction to protect the contents of the container.
It is another object of the invention to provide a carton with a dispensing opening in a front panel and dividers formed within the container to organize the contents.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a container that can perform the multiple functions of shipping, displaying and dispensing.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a container that is inexpensive and useable at all points between the manufacture and retailer.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent after reading the description of the invention.